In a society where houses are
built closer and closer together and neighbors have become
strangers, the person you pass on the street could have a
profound impact on your life, and you’d never know it.
Bringing this concept to fruition, Cheryl Klein’s first
novel, The Commuters, is a collection of short stories
examining the connections--and missed connections--that fuel
our lives.

Billed as a “novel of
intersections,” Klein uses every tool at a writer’s
advantage to examine Los Angeles as a city that is fragmented
and isolated but still able to maintain subtle strings of
correlations linking the citizens together. Rarely is the
network acknowledged by the characters themselves, but through
structure, metaphors, themes and a red skirt, a reader can see
the ties that interconnect their lives.

Refusing to confine the ensemble
protagonists to one area of the city, Klein places her stories
in a diverse range of locales; West Hollywood, the garment
district, Santa Monica and South Central all are featured.
Within these districts is a population crowded with people who
are so concerned with themselves and their immediate attention
spans that they fail to see the bigger picture. There are no
main characters in The Commuters; instead, the cast is
spread out over 20 chapters. Each person acting as a driver on
a freeway, each piloting his or her own car. While they may
pass each other, even slightly acknowledge the presence of the
person to their right, they rarely give a second thought as to
whom that person is, where he or she is going, or where he or
she has been. Klein proposes that if we were to ask those
questions, we would find the intersections of our lives.

One simple thread, in the form of a red
skirt, unknowingly brings together a series of characters,
their own similarities and differences magnified through their
relation to the article of clothing. The red skirt designed by
Beverly Hills fashion designer Tam Perla is worn by famous
actress Kendall Elise Alexander and sewn by Melanea, for which
she receives 25 cents a garment from her sweatshop boss, Mrs.
Hong. A lesbian book club, a winged DJ and a series of fires
that may or may not be targeting an ex-lover of Charlie
Chaplin all are ties that bind Klein’s community
together--whether they see it or not.

In an inspired move, Klein structures
her novel after her characters: unique, diverse and fresh. By
varying the formats of her chapters, she is able to bring in
the strengths of prose, poetry, journalism and even comic
strips to tell her tales. Because these storytelling styles
are used infrequently, they are effective; if each chapter
brought a new style, the styles would become a gimmick, not a
tool. It is this same approach that Klein brings to her themes
and metaphors. Transportation and the freeway are metaphors
seen throughout the novel, but because they are used as
support for already strong stories, the reader is not weighed
down. Likewise, thematic elements--primarily the strength of
women--are not emphasized. Rather, they are allowed to exist
in subtext, where they are given ample room to develop and
grow.

A list traveling miles long could be
created, detailing how citizens of our society are becoming
detached from each other, but Klein gives us one good reason
as to why we should reunite. Whether you’re a young, gay man
who works at a taco hut or the ex-roommate of a now-famous
actress, everyone is looking for the same thing. We all just
want to make a connection.